Overhead door



IIIIIII OVERHEAD DOOR J. H. MCKEE ETAL Oct. 20, 1953 Filled Feb. 2, 195o Oct. 20, 1953 J. H, MGKEE ETAL 2,655,683

OVERHEAD DOOR Filed Feb. 2, 195o 3 sheets-sheet 2 Oct. 20, 1953 J. H. MCKEE ET AL OVERHEAD DOOR Filed Feb. 2, 1950 s sheegysheet 's Patented Oct. 20, l1953 OVERHEAD Doon James H. McKee, Aurora, and Melvin E. Hartzler, Downers Grove, Ill., assignors to McKee Door Company, Aurora, Ill., a corporation of Illinois Application February 2, 1950, Serial No. 142,022

Our invention relates to overhead door constructions and is more particularly concerned with overhead doors of the sectional type in which a plurality of sections are hinged together along longitudinal axes. Generally, such doors near their vertical edges are provided with rollers adjacent the hinge lines, these rollers operating in tracks located at the side of the door opening. The tracks in turn have vertical and horizontal sections which are connected by curved portions such that the door is guided in its opening and closing movements from a vertical sealed position to an overhead horizontal position. Preferahlyy with doors of this type the vertical portions of the tracks are inclined backwardly slightly from bottom to top so that the door at the time of opening is initially given a slight backward movementso as to free the edges of the door from the stops, thereby permitting the door to be moved to the overhead position without irictional contact against the doorstops. Conversely, this arrangement permits the door to seal tightly when in the completely closed position.

Doors of this type are counterbalanced, generally with springs, so that if properly made and adjusted. very little eiiort is required to effect their opening and closing movements. n y

The construction and installation of doors of 9 claims. (oli iis-104) this general character presents several problems, I A

many of which are largely associated with individual installations.- As an example, certain sections of the doors may or may not have glass and A this glass may be comparatively thin and light or, on the other hand, thick and very heavy.

Again, the several sections may differ as to height. Also, individual installations require that in some cases the track be inclined more than in others.

All of these requirements have necessitated in the past the provision of many sets of hardware of a generally duplicate nature in so far as the functions they are to serve are concerned in order to accommodate particular 'installation problems. For instance, the hinge brackets which connect the several door sections and Because of these fixed dimensions between the f 2 inner face of the door and the center of the roller shaft, the hinges are not alike; and, therefore, are not interchangeable one with another. Neither would the same hinges, as is required for a five section door of a givenheight, be usable on a six section door of the same given height.

Another problem arises from the fact that tordinarily springs have the characteristic of exerting a force which is approximately propor- Itional to their degree of deflection. This rate of decrease of spring force would be compensated for by a door having an even distribution of weight from top to bottom which passes from a verticalto a horizontal overhead track if the "door were made up of yan infinite number of sections. Since under no circumstances are an iniinite number of sections used, it will be seen Athat the tendency of the door will be to have a somewhat jerky operation during its opening and closing movements. When only a few number of sections are used in a door of this character, this eiect becomes more pronounced, but is overcome to a large degree by applying the teachings .of our present invention. f

In view of the above it is one of the objects of our invention to provide a door having a novel combined hinge and roller which is of substantially universal application in that it can be adjusted at the time of installation in order to operate at any point between the top and bottom yof the door and further to distribute the weight fof the door more evenly as the door passes from Athe vertical to the horizontal position,y thereby fitting the rate of the decrease of the downward pressure of the door as it is raised to the characteristics of the spring counterbalance system yused. Another object of our invention is to provide a novel combined hinge and roller for use in door installations of the overhead type such that the ,combined hinge and roller is adjustable through la wide range of applications to such an extent y as tomake adjustment of the track spacing with yrespect to the jambs unnecessary in order to nt the kdoor to the frame.

Still another object is to provide an improved "door hinge and roller combination o f the above Ctype in which two spaced apart tandem rollers bridge the line of division between superposed horizontal sections of the door so as to produce better tracking and in which the spacing between the rollers and the spacing between the common .center line of the twoy rollers and the hinge line may be varied in a simple manner.

A further object of our invention is to provide 3 a twin roller bracket with rollers angularly adjustable about a common pivot pin.

Yet another object of our invention is to provide all of the above at relatively low cost.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment of our invention which is illustrated in the accompanying, drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view through a door of the overhead type showing the track system and roller hardware organization at the far side of the door. In this view the door is shown in the down position;

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but drawn to larger scale and showing only the upper position thereof. In this view the door is shown partly opened;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary detail of a portion of Fig. 1 showingr one of the hinge and roller brackets in side elevation;

Fig. 4 is a horizontal. sectional view which may be considered as taken. substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;.

Fig. 5 is a detail sectional. view through a portion of the bracket. and' may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows substantially along the line 5-5 of Fig.. 3;

Fig. 6 is a side elevation showing the roller bracket. of the present invention in an alternative form and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows along the line 6- 6 oi' Fig. 7; and

Fig. 7 is an edge view thereof and may be considered as taken in the direction of the arrows along the line 1.-1. of Fig. 6.

In Fig. 1 of the drawings is shown a door frame indicated by the numeral. i0', which surrounds a. door opening and has a stop molding I'l with an inner face I2 against which the door seals in the down position. The door illustrated is made up of a plurality of sections l4` I6, I3, and4 20 which arey joined together along their horizontal contacting edges by hinges of any suitable type indcated here by the numerals 22', 24 and 26. This door is carried and guided by a pair of metal tracks 21 arranged one at each end and supported from thewoodwork `by suitable brackets, 29. The tracks have an overhead. horizontal portion 2B joined by a downwardly curvingY portion 30 to a generally vertically extending portion 32.

The vertical portion 32 is not quite parallel to the plane of the door in the. down position, but is so arranged that its lower end 34 is quite close to the door while its upper portion 36 is spaced somewhat to the rear thereof. A track soY arranged is generally referred to as an inclined track. Its purpose is to enable the door to` be carried downwardly intoA the closed position with a slightr forward component so that at about the 4 which in turn run within the tracks 2l. These brackets will be described in greater detail presently. Although it is not shown in the drawings, a door of this type ordinarily is connected by means of cables which pass over pulleys to springs which act as counterbalances so that the door weight is approximately balanced in any position.

With a door of this4 general construction it is customary to provide roller brackets of fixed but different length offsets in each of the positions shown because of the track incline, with the result that when these brackets are attached to the door and the rollers are tted to the track, it isthen necessary to adjust the position of the track in order to bring the door into full length engagement with the stop molding il. Also, since it is customary to use only one roller at each of the hinge lines the door may operate in a somewhat jerky manner as the sections of the door successively move from the vertical to the horizontal position.

The brackets forming the subject matter of the present invention overcome these disadvantages and are shown in greater detail in Figs. 2, 3, 4, and5. These brackets may be entirely independent of the hinges which connect the door sections or may be combined in various ways with such hinges. In the particularv form of our invention shown in Figs. 1 to 5, inclusive, the brackets are combined with the hinges located adjacent the lateral edges of the door sections but it will be understood thatV where the brackets are separate fromV the hinges each bracket will include a plate attached to a door section.

Referring particularly to Figs. 1 to 4 inclusive it will be seen that one plate of each hinge adjacent a, lateral edge of the door is provided with a pair of rearward extensions 38, each drilled to provide an eye 40 in a position somewhat behind the face of the door and preferably offset so as to be only slightly out of horizontal alignment with the pin of its hinge, for example, hinge pin 42' shown in Fig. 3. A pair of overlapping generally triangular metal' leaves or arms 46 and 48 are hinged to the extensions 38 by a pin 50 which passes through the eyes 40 and also through a sleeve 44 interposed between the eye-carrying extensions 38.

The bracket pin 50 passes freely through a hole drilled in the plate 46 and has its head secured to the plate or arm 48 in a manner hereinafter more specifically described. This pin 50 rotates freely in the eyes 40 and' is also capable of sliding longitudinally therein to permit lateral shifting of the arms 46' and 4B relative to the extensions 38.

' This pin 50 is made of such length as to permit time the door reachesthe lowermost position it is brought into face-to-face contact with the stop molding Il. This provides a good` seal between the door and the frame while at the same time avoiding a large portion of the friction which would otherwise be present' if' the door hadl to move in face to facecontact with the door frame or stop molding during the vertical portion of its travel. Similarly, when the door is raised, the initial opening movement carries it backwardly away from the stop molding and out of frictional engagement therewith.

Near its top and bottom edges and at each of the hinge lines 22, 24' and 26, the door is provided with brackets which carry guide rollers a limited longitudinal movement relative to extensions 38 without moving out of the eyes provided by these extensions The arms 46V and 48 are in general reverse complements of each other and have overlapped adjacent inner' ends. Each of these arms carries near its freeV end anV outwardly extending roller axle 52 which may be secured to its arm by passing a portion of its axle of reduced diameter through a hole in the arm and heading over in a protruding end much in the manner of setting a rivet, the particular construction being described more fully in connection with that form of our invention shown in Figs. 6 and '7. These axles are parallel to the hinge pin 42 and each is provided near its end with a roller 54 fitted to the track 32. In Fig. 4 it would appear that the roller axle 52 is in the same vertical plane as the bracket pin 50, whereas the particular relationship shown in this figure is a result of the inclination of the track and in fact the roller axles 52 of a given bracket are ordinarily in planes rearwardly of the plane of bracket pin 50.

By moving the door toward or away from the stop molding with the rollers 54 engaged in the track, it will be seen that the two arms 46 and 48 pivot about the pin 50 thereby causing intermediate overlapped portions of the arms to slide in face-to-face relationship. These overlapped portions are provided with arcuate slots 56 in register. slots and is provided with a nut 60 threaded thereto so that when the nut is tightened the arms are clamped together, thereby iixing the relationship between the two arms. That is, they cannot slide relative to each other although they are still free to pivot as a unit with the pin 50.

A bracket as described has among other things the advantage that two longitudinally spaced apart rollers are engaged in the track 32 and bridge the hinge line 42 so that the transition in motion of one of the hinge lines from the vertical to the horizontal portion of the track is more gradual, thereby permitting the door to move more smoothly. In addition, by simply loosening the nut 60, the spacing between `the hinge line 42 and the track 32 may be adjusted as desired after which the nut 60 can be tightened to nx the relationship. Identical brackets as just described may be installed at all of the hinge lines and a similar bracket 68 may be attached to the top of the door adjacent each lateral edge thereof. All may be adjusted after assembly to give the desired spacing even though the track is inclined from top to bottom. This arrangement also en- A bolt 58 is passed through theser portions through which a ybolt ||2 is passed. A nut ||4 isthreaded to this bolt and when tightened clamps the arms tightly together.

At its outer end one of the arms, |04 for instance, is secured to a transverse axle forming member ||6 which carries a roller ||8 fitted to the track 90. The opposite arm |06 may be similarly provided with a roller, or, as shown, the roller |20 may be fitted to an axle |22 connected to a short strip |24 which overlaps the arm |06. Both this short strip |24 and the arm |06 are provided with a plurality of equally spaced linearly arranged bolt holes |26 and |28 such that l any number of the holes |28`may be placed in ables the installer to compensate for any mis- Y alignment as between the tracks at opposite sides of the door. Therefore the tracks do not need to be as carefully installed as is the case where conventional roller brackets are used.

The brackets 68 attached rto the top of the door are identical with the brackets adjacent the hinge line except that the brackets 63 are not combined with a hinge plate. Instead each bracket 68 has its own separate plate for attachment vto a door section by bolts, screws, or in any other usual or conventional manner.

A bracket like the bracket |58 could be attached to the bottom of the door adjacent each lateral edge thereof. However, in most constructions at least a single roller will suffice and in Fig. 1 we have shown a conventional single roller bracket 82 attached adjacent the lower edge of the door.

In Figs. 6 and '7 we have shown a-form of our invention which is intended for generally similar installations, although there is some modification .in the structure. In theseillustrations the f track is indicated by thenumeral 90 while two contiguous door sections are illustrated at 92 and Sid. What may be considered as half of a hinge 66 is secured by means of bolts 88 to one of these door sections while the i complementary hinge portion |00 is similarly secured tothe other door These n alignment with a similar number of holes |28 and the two pieces connected together by nuts and bolts |30. By properly selecting the holes to be placed in alignment before securing the bolts |30 it will be seen that the wheel base of the track following car made up of the wheels 8 and |20 and the arms |04 and |06 may be adjusted as desired. Of course, instead of having the wheel axle ||6 secured directly to the arm |04 it may also be secured to a 'separate element similar to that indicated at |24 so that both wheels I8 and |20 may always be spaced the same distance from the hinge pin |02, or, if desired, the greater spacing may be had at either end.

The above-described arrangement for adjusting the wheel base of the track following car or roller bracket is useful in giving a freer and smoother action to a door in which the different door sections are of different weight or size, such as when some of the sections are provided with heavy windows, for instance.

The device illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7 is similar to that first described in that the spacing between the door and the track may be adjusted in a simplemanner after the track has been installed by simply loosening the nut |4 and pivoting the arms |04 and |06 about the hinge pin |02 so as to place the wheels in proper location relative to the door after which simply tightening the nut ||4 will fix this relationship. The construction shown in these figures forattaching the axles I6 and |22 to their respective arms may beutilized in attaching pin to plate 48 in the flrst embodiment of our invention.

Although for purposes of illustration we have presented a preferred embodiment of our invention and have shown and described the same in alternative devices, it will be apparent that other modifications and variations may be made in the structure without departing from the scope of this invention which is to be measured by the Scope of the following claims.

. Having described-our invention what we claim as-new and useful and desire Vto secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

.1. A combination hinge and rollerbracket for pivotally connecting together the sections of an overhead door andforconnecting the sections in vrolling relationship to a track comprising rmeans forming a pair of hinge leaves adapted for attachment one to each of adjacent door lsections, a hinge pin pivotally connecting said leaves to form a hinge thereof, said hinge pin extending at one side beyond the edge of saidy hinge leaves, a pair of arms pivotally connected to said hinge pin extension, a track following roller ysecured to each vof said arms on the side thereof opposite said hinge pin, and vclampinggmeans for adjustably fixing the angular relationship of one of said arms with respect to the otherof said arms.

2. A combination hinge and roller bracket fox` l pivotally connecting together the sections of an overhead door and for connecting the sections in rolling relationship toa track comprising means forming a pair o! hinge leaves adapted for attachment one to each of adjacent door sections, a hinge pin pivotally connecting said leaves to form a hinge thereof, said hinge pin extending at one side beyond the edge of said hinge leaves, a pair of arms pivotally connected to said hinge pin extension, a track following roller secured to each of said arms on the side thereof opposite said hinge pin, clamping means for adjustably iixing the angular relationship of one of said arms with respect to the other o! said arms, and means for adjusting the length of at least one of said arms independently of the other of said arms.

3. A roller bracket for connecting a section of an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track comprising a member for attachment to a. door section, a pair of arms adapted to lie parallel to a door edge and having overlapping parts, a pivot attached to one of said parts, said pivot extending through the other part and into said member, means for securing together said arms in various angular relationships about said pivot, axle attached to the free end of each of said arms and extending from the side thereof opposite to that of said pivot, and rollers carried by said axles and lying in a common plane perpendicular to said pivot.

4. A roller bracket for connecting a section of an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track having vertical and horizontal portions, said bracket comprising a member for attachment to a door section, a pair of arms adapted to lie parallel to a door edge, means for pivotally connecting said arms to each other and to said member, said means comprising a pivot pin mounted on said member and adapted to have its axis in a plane parallel to a face of said door section and to extend beyond an edge thereof, threaded clamping` means for fixing said arms in any one of an infinite variety of angular relationships about said pivot pin, an axle attached to the free end of each of said arms and extending from the side thereof opposite said pivot pin, and rollers carried by said axles and lying in a common plane perpendicular to said pivot pin.v

5. A roller bracket for connecting a section of an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track having vertical and horizontal portions, said bracket comprising a member for attachment to a door section, a pair of arms adapted to lie parallel to a door edge, means for pivotally connecting said arms to each other and to said member, said means comprising a pivot pin mounted on said member and adapted to have its axis in a plane parallel to a face of said door section, each of said arms having an arcuate slot with the axis of said pivot pin `as the center of curvature for said slot, clamping means extending through said slots for securing said arms in an innite variety of angular relationships, an axle attached to thefree end of each of said arms and extending from the side thereof opposite said pivot pin, and rollers carried byv said axles and lying in a common plane perpendicular to said pivot pin.

6. A roller bracket for connecting a section of an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track having vertical and horizontal portions, said bracket comprising a member forattachment to a door section, a pivot pinearried by the member and projecting therefrom in a direction adapted to be horizontal, parallel to a face o! the door section, and normal to and end edge of the door section, a pair of arms each having one endl portion mounted on the projecting end of the pivot pin, means securing together said arms in various angular relationships about said pivot pin, an axle carried by the free end portion of each arm and having an end portion lying outwardly beyond the end o! the pivot pin, and a track-engaging roller mounted on the end portion of each axle.

7. A roller bracket for connecting a section o! an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track having vertical and horizontal portions, said bracket comprising a member for attachment to a door section, a pivot pin carried by the member andY projecting therefrom in a direction adapted to be horizontal, parallel to a tace of the door section, and normal to an end edge of the vdoor section, a pair of arms each comprising a flat plate having one end portion mounted on the projecting end of the pivot pin, means securing together said arms in various angular relationi ships about said pivot pin, an axle carried by the free end portion of each arm and having an end portion lying outwardly beyond said arms on the side of each arm opposite the pivot pin, and a track-engaging roller mounted on the end portion of each axle, said rollers'lying in a common plane andl being adapted to engage a track positioned outwardly beyond said pivot pin and arms.

8. A roller bracket for connecting a section of an overhead door in rolling relationship to a track comprising a member for attachment to a door section, a pair oi arms adapted to lie parallel to a door edge and having overlapping parts, a pivot hinging said parts together and to said member, means for securing together said arms in various angular relationships about said pivot, an axle attached to the free end of each of said arms and extending from the side thereof opposite to that of said pivot, and rollers carried by said axles and lying in a common plane perpendicular to said pivot.

9. In a roller bracket for connecting a section 0i' an overhead door in rolling relationship to a. track, a member having a plate portion for attachment to the face of a door section, a pair of arms projecting from the member in a plane substantially perpendicular to that of the plate portion and being pivoted together and to said member for angular adjustment, means for securing said arms in selected angular adjustment, andA a roller mounted on the tree end portion of each arm with both rollers lying in a common plane laterally beyond an edge of said plate portion and substantially perpendicular to the plane thereof for rolling engagement with said track.

JAMES H. McKEE. MELVIN E. HARTZLER.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,033,177 Kail July 23, 1912 1,748,849 Schmidt Feb. 25, 1930 1,857,756 Headley May 10, 1932 1,983,856 Johnson Dec. 11, 1934 2,171,194 Smith Aug. 29, 1939 2,525,309 Norberg Oct. 10, 1950 

